Brian Williams

[jwaggs]

Who will replace him?

[Ron Thorne]

If Brian Williams is replaced, Lester Holt has my vote. I think he's earned a weeknight anchor spot. Plus, he's a pretty damned good jazz bassist!

[jwaggs]

Nice! I didn't know that.

[Ron Thorne]

Brian Williams takes break from 'Nightly News'



Gary Levin, USA TODAY 7:07 p.m. EST February 7, 2015

Brian Williams, under internal investigation by NBC News over his embellished account of a 2003 helicopter mission over Iraq, told NBC staffers Saturday he'll step down temporarily to avoid becoming a distraction.

In a note sent Saturday, he wrote:

"In the midst of a career spent covering and consuming news, it has become painfully apparent to me that I am presently too much a part of the news, due to my actions. As Managing Editor of NBC Nightly News, I have decided to take myself off of my daily broadcast for the next several days, and Lester Holt has kindly agreed to sit in for me to allow us to adequately deal with this issue. Upon my return, I will continue my career-long effort to be worthy of the trust of those who place their trust in us."


Full story

[jwaggs]

I am assuming he's still drawing his $10 million annual salary, or $192,307.69 a week. Or, put another way, nearly four times the U.S. average median annual salary ($51.9k) in a week.

One of my buddies, a top writer and a 30- year veteran for a mid-size daily, makes in a year what Brian Williams makes in about two days "taking a break while avoiding being a distraction."

[ValerieB]

I am assuming he's still drawing his $10 million annual salary, or $192,307.69 a week. Or, put another way, nearly four times the U.S. average median annual salary ($51.9k) in a week.

One of my buddies, a top writer and a 30- year veteran for a mid-size daily, makes in a year what Brian Williams makes in about two days "taking a break while avoiding being a distraction."

I guess it will make you happier to know that Williams has been suspended for six months, without pay.

[bluenoter]

. . . Williams has been suspended for six months, without pay.

Brian Williams, the embattled NBC news anchor whose credibility plummeted after he acknowledged exaggerating his role in a helicopter episode in Iraq, has been suspended for six months without pay, the network said on Tuesday night.

“This was wrong and completely inappropriate for someone in Brian’s position,” Deborah Turness, the president of NBC News, said in a memo. Lester Holt, who stepped in for Mr. Williams this week, will continue as the substitute, the network said.

The suspension culminated a rapid and startling fall for Mr. Williams, who at age 55 was not only the head of the No. 1 evening news show, but also one of NBC’s biggest stars, a frequent celebrity guest on “Saturday Night Live,” “30 Rock” and the late-night talk show circuit.

Mr. Williams has been drawing 9.3 million viewers a night, and his position seemed unassailable. Even as the stature of the nightly newscast faded in the face of real-time digital news, Mr. Williams was one of the most trusted names in America and commanded the respect accorded predecessors like Walter Cronkite, Tom Brokaw and Peter Jennings.

But his embellishment of his helicopter journey and questions about his other reporting undermined the trust viewers placed in him. In the six days since he admitted his mistake, he was pilloried relentlessly online, with Twitter feeds mocking him and amateur truth squads investigating his past reporting. Almost none of his peers in the news business came to his support.

Six months is a long time to disappear from the television landscape, and analysts said it would be difficult for him to re-establish himself as a viable nightly presence.

“I don’t know how he can ever read the news with a straight face, or how the public will respond if he does,” said Mark Feldstein, a broadcast journalism professor at the University of Maryland. On the other hand, he added, “Maybe they’re hoping that with a six-month cooling-off period, he’s got a loyal fan base.”

Mr. Williams was informed of his punishment Tuesday morning when he went to the Upper West Side apartment of Stephen P. Burke, the chief executive of NBCUniversal. Only the two men were present, according to a person briefed on the meeting, and Mr. Burke informed Mr. Williams that NBC had decided to suspend him. The “Nightly News” staff learned about it in a meeting after the evening broadcast.

“By his actions, Brian has jeopardized the trust millions of Americans place in NBC News,” Mr. Burke said in a statement. “His actions are inexcusable and this suspension is severe and appropriate.”

Mr. Burke said that Mr. Williams “has shared his deep remorse with me, and he is committed to winning back everyone’s trust.” He added, “He deserves a second chance, and we are rooting for him.”

NBC did not make its top executives available for comment, and Mr. Williams did not respond to phone calls and an e-mail seeking comment. A friend who spoke to Mr. Williams on Tuesday described him as “shattered.”

For NBC, the suspension provides at least a temporary solution to the crisis that has engulfed the network since Mr. Williams admitted last week that he had misled the public with the helicopter story, and apologized. The episode has called into question not only the credibility of Mr. Williams but also the ethics and culture at NBC News. It is not clear whether other people at NBC were aware of Mr. Williams’s version of events.

Ms. Turness said in a memo to NBC News staff that executives decided to suspend Mr. Williams because he misrepresented the Iraq episode on the “Nightly News” broadcast. She said that executives also were concerned about the way he portrayed his reporting away from his newscasts. That includes his descriptions of reporting on Hurricane Katrina as well as other coverage.

“We have concerns about comments that occurred outside NBC News while Brian was talking about his experiences in the field,” she said. . . .

It was an appearance on David Letterman’s show in 2013 — during which he exaggerated the account of being on a helicopter that was shot down in Iraq — that helped put him at the precipice of losing his job.

If Mr. Williams does not return, finding a permanent successor will be a major problem for the network, which was not anticipating having to replace him. In December, Mr. Williams signed a new five-year contract reported to be worth $10 million a year. Mr. Holt, who had been the weekend anchor for NBC, was not previously considered a likely replacement. . . .

Travis J. Tritten, the Stars and Stripes reporter who broke the story about Mr. Williams’s exaggeration, said he did not get any satisfaction from seeing Mr. Williams suspended. “Like the vets I spoke with,” he wrote in a Twitter post after the suspension was announced, “I just wanted to set the record straight.”
____________________
David Carr contributed reporting.


For the full article, see

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/11/business/media/brian-williams-suspended-by-nbc-news-for-six-months.html

Also see the related coverage available on that page, including a video (which can't be posted here), "How Brian
Williams's Iraq Story Changed."

[jwaggs]

I am assuming he's still drawing his $10 million annual salary, or $192,307.69 a week. Or, put another way, nearly four times the U.S. average median annual salary ($51.9k) in a week.

One of my buddies, a top writer and a 30- year veteran for a mid-size daily, makes in a year what Brian Williams makes in about two days "taking a break while avoiding being a distraction."

I guess it will make you happier to know that Williams has been suspended for six months, without pay.

Does the fact that someone who is a serial liar and one of our biggest cheerleaders for war isn't getting paid $10 million a year -- for six months -- to mascarade as a journalist make me happy? Not necessarily. There are a lot more where he came from. Plus, he'll still probably make $5 million this year.

http://fair.org/blog/2015/02/05/some-ot ... ogize-for/

[hornplayer]

$10 Million for delivering the news for half an hour 5 days a week? :O

I'm sorry, I realize he's probably not the only seriously overpaid news anchor, but that amount seems obscene to me. :P

[jwaggs]

An interesting piece in New York magazine about how NBC bigwigs tried to muzzle Williams before he hung himself -- or at least his career.

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/20 ... -host.html

[ValerieB]

I am interested in hearing Williams's "apology" and "explanation". I have been a fan of his for a long time. feeling terrible for his family and friends.

[BFrank]

Bill Maher had a good take on the Brian Williams thing. I pretty much agree with him.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XqnMiVw8Xw

[jwaggs]

That about sums it up, BFrank. But what irks me, as a journalist, is that he's received all manner of awards for pushing that crap.

"He has received eleven Edward R. Murrow Awards, twelve Emmy Awards, the duPont-Columbia University Award, the Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism and the industry’s highest honor, the George Foster Peabody Award."

It's fucking disgraceful -- and was even before he was caught as a serial liar. Just more shit on the bassett hound that swam his way home from the shipwreck, and saved the little girl's teddy bear while he was at it.

Meanwhile, the real journalists, like Bob Simon and David Carr, are dropping like flies. And they won't be replaced. BuzzFeed and "curators" of what s trending on Twitter -- as Maher alluded to -- will replace the real reporters.

I loved the piece that Steve Hartman did on Bob Simon, in which he went on to say that Simon never drew attention to himself. Never made himself part of the story, which was Williams' signature. He somehow always made himself a central part of the news he was allegedly covering.